Naseem Shah, a 21-year-old right-hander for the Pakistan national cricket team, has expressed his disappointment over the pitches offered in home Test matches.
The Pakistan Cricket Board has come under heavy scrutiny for preparing poor pitches for home Test matches, which offer too much help to batsmen. The board promised things would change in the new home season with the appointment of Tony Hemming as the new managing director.
Ahead of the first Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, it was reported everywhere that a green-surfaced pitch would be prepared which would offer plenty of pace and bounce.
In view of this, the Pakistan team management decided to release Abrar Ahmed from the team and fielded a four-man attack. This decision by the team management has backfired as the pitch has not provided any support to the pace bowlers and the batsmen have scored runs very easily.
Naseem Shah, one of the fast bowlers who gave his all in the match, spoke to the media after the fourth day of play. While speaking about the pitch, he expressed his frustration over the batsman-friendly tracks being built in Pakistan and criticised PCB. Naseem Shah stated:
“I think we’ve had plenty of series where we’ve had pitches like this (at home). I think they did everything they could to make the pitch usable for the pitchers, but maybe because of the heat with the new ball, it was usable, and after that, the conditions calmed down.”
We need to take advantage of our home advantage and design courses that suit us – Naseem Shah
The young player also gave a crucial piece of advice to the Pakistan Cricket Board, saying that they should take advantage of the home field advantage by preparing pitches that suit them. Naseem Shah mentioned that they should opt for spin-friendly pitches if green-roofed tracks cannot be built in Pakistan. He said:
“We have to take advantage of the home advantage and design courses that suit us. If we can’t prepare a green course, we can try a track that favours spinning, but we always have to entertain the fans.”
Naseem Shah further revealed that they were hoping that the pitch would help the fast bowlers but things did not turn out as they expected. He said:
“Our mindset was that the pitch here would help the fast bowlers. But the conditions were not what I expected. Obviously, when you play with 4 fast bowlers, your mindset is to attack with the fast bowlers.”
At the end of the fourth day, Pakistan’s national cricket team was 23/1 and trailing by 94 runs. The match was heading towards a draw until something drastic happens and the pitch starts offering relief to the players who take to the sea.
It is noteworthy that in the first innings, Pakistan, after being down and out at 16/3, posted a massive score of 448/6d on the board. Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel were the saviors of the Men in Green as they batted exceptionally and scored tons of runs. Rizwan played a sensational innings of 171 runs while Shakeel scored 141 runs.
In response, the Bangladesh team batted even better and managed to score 565 runs. The best visiting players were Mushfiqur Rahim (191), Shadman Islam (93) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (77).
